Papa Roach's Last Resort
| Papa Roach's Last Resort | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Adeptus | Insect Spirits | ||||||||
| Wychking |
Hybrid Form Roach Flash Form Roach | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| One Insect Hive | |||||||||
| This was an initiation run. | |||||||||
Summary
Wychking solves a case. It's sad.
Background
Taru's had a long history of hunting down insect spirits. As a result, she's become universally loathed by them, even more so than mortals in general. Her existence is known to Invae, and not in a good way. But hey, she's a private investigator and cases need solving.
The Meet
Taru has been looking into a series of burglaries and visits the latest victim who had her washing machine stolen. The woman wants it back, but can't tell much of value, so the investigation will have to start here.
The Run
She assenses the place and finds odd trails of an aura. While she can't make heads or tails of it, she calls a Spirit of Beasts, Otso, to do her a favor and search for the stolen item. He returns later once she's done eating takeout at a sidewalk and reports that a suburb near the Everett/Snohomish border is where the trail ends. She heads on over and starts taking a look, but doesn't really spot much yet. She calls on Ada, also known as Adeptus and asks her about the area. The spirit knows of some, but is acting coy.
Begrudgingly, Taru hands over twenty reagents to get the spirit to talk. Ada reveals that one of two buildings on the street they're meeting at have had odd signatures. Once Ada clarifies what she means by this - roaches - Taru's demeanour changes to a more grim and livid shade. She leaves immediately, tells her friend spirit to piss off and gets herself some Accelerator. When she gets back, she calls Otso again to check the houses, but while it bumps into a ward on the first house, the other is clean. Otso's dismissed and Taru sneaks barely to the backyard where she summons her guardian - a Daughter of the North, whom she exchanges a determined look with and strike at the ward in tandem. With Hurlg, Accelerator and pure rage, Taru charges at the merged metahuman-insect spirit abominations within. While the flesh-form manages to distract her, Taru's pure hatred for the insects perseveres and lets her and her Guardian Spirit destroy all three insect hosts. Dousing the fires caused by the spirit's fire attacks quickly, Taru checks the basement for a strange noise.
And she finds the insect shaman. A young girl in late stages of cancer covered in cockroaches. The entire basement is utterly infested and the stolen items are laying about. Taru takes pictures of all three -- naturally, when they're covered in insect spirit goo, none of the owners want them back. The girl demands to know where her parents are, but while Taru exchanges a few words, telling her that her parents died a long time ago, she leaves the young shaman in the basement and calls Knight-Errant once she gets back up. Waiting until they get there, she'll inform them of the danger in the basement and advises them to approach with caution.
Aftermath
Marking the case as solved, Taru takes the night off to drink herself to sleep. In hindsight, she laments her choices, but not in the way one would expect. Ada's not nearly as depressed; she got reagents from it, after all.
Rewards
- 8k nuyen
- 8 karma
- 4 CDP
- IG Discount
Wychking's After Action Report
That girl was dead to the world the second she caved in and started working with bugs. Damn it, this wasn't even the first time I saw something like this, so why did I hesitate? I've been out of the fight for too long, I've started growing soft. I saw her and she looked so... frail. It was unfair that someone like that would get so much wrong done to her, but then again, I know how that feels like. I shouldn't have left her to be taken by Knight-Errant, but... well. The end result is the same either way. It's not a fun time for anyone to see a kid that young go down the wrong path, but in this case there can't be any compromise. Bugs leave nothing salvageable in their wake. Not even kids.